By Theresa Schliep and Victor Ordonez
Note: This article is breaking and will be updated as more information comes to light.
Update: 5/1/17, 6:23 p.m.
Clark provided this statement in response to Howe to The Fordham Ram:
Bob Howe’s statement that Faculty Salary and Benefits Committee made
changes over the weekend is utterly false and we demand that this
false statement be retracted. I did indeed write to faculty informing them of the deal we reached with the administration on Friday. I also informed faculty and then Salary and Benefits of provisions agreed to in that agreement including the $400/800 HRA fund through 12/31/20 and the $250,000 roll over hardship fund through
12/31/20 that they are now contesting. On Sunday we received an email at 10:54 pm from our lawyer that the administration proposed changes that went against the agreement we reached Friday afternoon. We have clear documentation of the negotiation meeting and will prove the record clear.
Update: 5/1/17, 4:30 p.m.
Budget negotiations between faculty and administration, seemingly completed on Friday, have complicated. In an email to The Fordham Ram, Andrew Clark, chair of the Faculty Senate salary and benefits committee, said the administration “is taking back the terms they agreed to and shook on [on] Friday.”
In response, Bob Howe, director of communications for the university, said the university’s offer from Friday “is still on the table.” In a statement, Howe said Clark endorsed the offer in an email. Here is the statement:
The University’s offer of Friday, April 28, which Professor Clark endorsed in an email that day, is not only still on the table, but is a very strong package which the Faculty Senate could and should ratify today. The Salary and Benefits Committee asked for additional concessions over the weekend, without which they said they would not recommend the package to the full Senate
Clark said the administration has taken back their agreement “by adding in new clauses that they never presented before and asking for more givebacks.”
“It is disgusting,” Clark said in his email to The Fordham Ram. “There is no more faith. They speak with split tongues.”
Clark said unless they agree to the terms they agreed to on Friday, the Faculty Senate will not make a deal.
The administration and faculty seemingly came to an agreement on salary and healthcare on Friday, the last day for the administration to “find accommodation with the Faculty Senate’s Salary and Benefits committee, within the budget that the Board has approved,” said the Board of Trustees in a statement in late April. See The Observer’s coverage of Friday’s events here.
The Faculty Senate is meeting today, and The Fordham Ram is reporting from the meeting. We will provide updates as they come.
Quit Whinning • May 1, 2017 at 10:03 pm
Cindy, frankly everyone should be protesting at Fordham as it is a con game, this with half the faculty as adjuncts making 7 Eleven wages. Fordham for better or worse is bordering on a perpetual scam. The university is just a story and a picture of Keating and the grass outside, what goes on inside is anyone’s guess ! At the graduate level it has become a joke, the women’s basketball team are allowed to do 3 year degrees and then a masters. Financially the school is cooked and will settle this as it is their worst PR nightmare unravelling and it is exposing tons of hidden things under the carpet. The adjuncts will be thrown a banana or something, sad place and mediocre leadership paying themselves handsomely !
Cindy • May 1, 2017 at 6:55 pm
I’m sorry, but the students were violent in the their protest. For the safety of all on campus, I am glad they were removed.
Violence should never be tolerated.
The punishment fits the crime. Please don’t exaggerate it. They are still allowed on campus for their academics. Seems fair.
Non Sequitur? • May 1, 2017 at 7:23 pm
Hi Cindy,
I understand that you may not agree with the tactics used by students during the protest that happened last Thursday, but how are the punishments students received related to the administration taking back the deal they offered to the faculty on Friday? It seems like you may want to comment on a different article more related to your opinions.
Marisa • May 1, 2017 at 11:43 pm
Hi Cindy,
It must be nice to sit confidently in your privilege and state that students being unjustly (and illegally according to New York housing laws) kicked out of university accommodations (which they overpay grossly for!) is a fair punishment for attempting to occupy what should be a public space and attempt to speak to their university president. The protest was not violent in intention nor in execution, as least not on the students’ behalf.
Your lack of compassion for students whose goal is securing a living wage and healthcare benefits for contingent faculty is frankly astonishing.
John • May 1, 2017 at 5:33 pm
The University is apparently now retaliating against the student demonstrators related to the faculty dispute issue by evicting students from their dorm rooms right before finals. So cruel and unnecessary.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/05/01/fordham-suspends-protesters-access-campus#.WQdIZODkh8A.facebook/
Just Another Day At Fordham • May 1, 2017 at 4:52 pm
Welcome to Fordham where peanut negotiations reflect the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fordham runs like a third world country. Beyond the negotiations this is silly and immature on Fordham’s part, Fordham suspends protester students right to access the campus plus expelled some from their dormitories https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/05/01/fordham-suspends-protesters-access-campus#.WQdIZODkh8A.facebook/ ! Forget food services, the faculty come first as they are what the degree is or in many cases not.